Maier making bid to reclaim sheriff's office

At the same time that George T. Maier formally announced his plans to once again seek the Democratic appointment as Stark County sheriff, attorneys for interim Sheriff Timothy Swanson prepared to file legal action to eliminate Maier from consideration.

At the same time that George T. Maier formally announced his plans to once again seek the Democratic appointment as Stark County sheriff, attorneys for interim Sheriff Timothy Swanson prepared to file legal action to eliminate Maier from consideration.

Maier, who served as sheriff from Feb. 7 until the Supreme Court removed him Nov. 6, sent a letter to 150 of the more than 200 members of the county Democratic Party's Central Committee to announce his plans to be a candidate when the committee meets to fill the seat vacated by Sheriff-elect Michael A. McDonald, who resigned in January due to illness.

"I have never left a job unfinished, and I don't intend to start now," Maier wrote in the letter that many committee members received Wednesday.

Maier believes he will be eligible for the appointment because he has been working as a full-time deputy at the Harrison County Sheriff's Office to fix what he considers a technicality that caused the Supreme Court to remove him from office and reinstate Swanson as interim sheriff.

The court last week determined that Maier did not have the full-time law enforcement experience needed for the sheriff's job. It deemed Maier's previous two-day employment with the Harrison County Sheriff's Office as too brief to be considered full-time. It also determined that Maier's job as assistant director of the Department of Public Safety did not meet the requirement because his duties were not dedicated solely to law enforcement.

"I want to reassure you that this is not a crisis," Maier wrote. "Instead, the court has pointed out a technical requirement that can be readily cured."

INELIGIBLE

Swanson's attorney, Gregory Beck, believes that the flaw that ousted Maier from the sheriff's office cannot be corrected.

He plans to file paperwork Monday that asks the Ohio Supreme Court to compel the Democratic Party to meet and choose a new sheriff from among the only two candidates who met the sheriff qualifications when the committee last met in February.

Beck said Maier isn't eligible for the upcoming appointment because the court ruled his qualifications in February weren't enough. He believes the Democrats have no authority to reopen the candidate process to other potential candidates because there's isn't a new vacancy.

"The only vacancy that occurred was when Mike McDonald (resigned). A vacancy is not created when someone is ousted," Beck said. "That is a whole different event. Ouster means that Mr. Maier should never have been there in the first place. Swanson should have been there until someone was properly put in his place."

Beck said since no vacancy exists, the committee must choose from among the other two candidates who were qualified during the first round of voting: Stark County Sheriff Lt. Louis Darrow and Hartville Police Chief Lawrence Dordea.

Page 2 of 2 - Beck also will ask the Supreme Court to order the Democratic party to hold its committee meeting as soon as possible. As of Thursday evening, no meeting date for the appointment had been announced.